Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way
by ProtoChan
Summary: As Tiana and Naveen work the catering job of a lifetime - for any place other than Storybrooke, that is - they reflect on how much they appreciate each other. And maybe, a spark or two flies for their long overdue romance in the process.


**Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way**

**Summary: As Tiana and Naveen work the catering job of a lifetime - for any place other than Storybrooke, that is - they reflect on how much they appreciate each other. And maybe, a spark or two flies for their long overdue romance in the process. **

**Dynamics Featured: Tiana/Naveen, Captain Swan (Mentioned, but don't appear), OG Killian and Tiana, OG Killian and Naveen**

So, for my 300 follower spectacular, the lovely daensarah requested either a Tiana/Naveen fic or a CS surprise party fic. Of course, being me, I decided not to just settle for doing one of those suggestions like a normal person, but to do both of them at the same time because I'm freakin' insane! Sound fun? I think so, but I'm a bit of a madwoman, so who am I to say for sure? Either way, as always, I hope you enjoy!

()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()

If there was one thing the former Prince Naveen of Maldonia could never see himself tiring of, it was the smell of hot food as it wafted through the air. Ever since he was a child, he found the smell of a baking oven or cooking vegetables to be a source of coziness that was all but unrivaled. Sneaking biscuits with his brother was one of his favorite pastimes and big banquets in their castle allowed for reunions with friends and family alike.

Yes, the enjoyment of food was something Naveen dearly loved.

And relatively recently, he found that the making of that food was something he quite enjoyed as well, especially with good company.

Speaking of...

"I love these Hooks," Tiana said, stretching her arms above her head after placing a tin tray full of beignets inside the oven. "Between the one whose entire family makes it their goal to bring their co-workers by the Bayou and the one who now gets his catering from us, we never have to worry about hiring a marketing department."

"You're definitely not wrong about that. They are quite the patrons," Naveen said. He looked to Tiana's side and was amazed at the 25 trays they had filled up with all manner of Cajun delicacies and desserts, a testament to how much work they'd completed thus far. "You'd think we were in charge of feeding the whole town with the storm we're cooking up here."

"It's Storybrooke," Tiana remarked. "You know we basically are."

"Does everyone around here always go to everything?"

"According to Killian, yes."

Naveen sighed, exhausted at just that prospect. "My God. I feel like we've been cooking for a year."

Tiana snickered, and Naveen was happy to hear that at least one of them still had spunk to spare.

"It's been nine hours," Tiana specified. Naveen groaned. They'd pulled an all nighter to prepare this catering job, and time was showing itself as to just how much of a toll that it now could take on his body, especially since Ella had to drop out at the last minute to care for a sick Henry and Lucy. What were the odds?

"Besides," she continued, "we're more than halfway done and well ahead of schedule, so that's good! If we keep on working, we'll be done by this afternoon and be right on time for Killian's surprise party."

How Tiana not only managed to be so chipper, but so organized so early in the morning was what Naveen found to be one of her best qualities.

That said, for someone far more lax, such as himself, it set a standard that he had no shame admitting he couldn't meet. "You know, Tiana," he stated, "there such a thing as too much hard work."

"Says who?" Tiana shot back.

"Says the bags under our eyes."

Tiana chuckled at the half-nag. "Fair enough," she relented. "Let's take five."

Naveen sat down on the kitchen table in Tiana's apartment and wiped a row of beads of sweat from his forehead. While normally, they'd be doing most of their work at The Rolling Bayou, the volume of their current order required much more cooking space than their truck could provide.

It was an admittedly welcome change of pace from the stuffier confines of The Rolling Bayou for Naveen. It's not like he didn't like the truck - he certainly did, but it was so nice to have some real space to work in and be able to sit down every once in a while on a real chair and not just some metal steps, especially given the scope of their current project.

For a moment, he mused on that project.

"He's crazy about her," Naveen remarked, looking at the literal mountain of beignets they'd prepared thus far. "Not only does he want to throw Emma a surprise party, but he's inviting the entire town."

"Some people will do a lot for love," Tiana cosigned.

"Would you ever like a party like that thrown for you?"

Tiana shrugged. "I don't know. I grew up a princess in a castle. I had plenty of parties thrown for me. I think my ideal birthday would be a night in, doing a bit of cooking."

"Like we are now?" Naveen pointed out. While Tiana didn't answer his question, she didn't frown at him either as she playfully rolled her eyes. He decided not to push it and moved on. "I've also got to admit that guy's money. If being a deputy makes you enough to throw a party like this without batting an eye, then I might need to give you my two weeks notice."

Tiana smirked, clearly taking that possibility with a Rolling Bayou-sized grain of salt. "To be fair," she said, "he did pay in dubloons, so I don't know if he's making all that much as a deputy. So, I guess you're stuck here for now."

Naveen returned the gesture and added in an eyebrow wiggle that had Tiana blushing. "Hardly a bad place to be." They stared into each other's eyes a bit. There was so much light and life in Tiana's eyes, even so early in the morning. He could never summarize them as hard or soft, but at the same time, they were so expressive. And that's what made them such a fun challenge to follow around. Tiana wasn't so much a mystery as much as someone who even if he had an idea of what she was going to do or say, he wanted to see it play out all the same.

The last six months had largely given him that. Now free of Dr. Facilier's control, he and Tiana were free to get to know each other. And that they did. To say their livelihoods merged would be an understatement. Not only did they still work together, but Naveen, still not admittedly ready for leadership, merged his kingdom with Tiana's, much to the warm reception of his parents. It turned out that the three of them had gotten close and protected each others kingdoms in the wake of his absence, and Naveen couldn't be happier about that, especially when it was clear that their hopes for the two of them were more than just a political merger.

Naveen couldn't blame them - he had honestly hoped for it too, and he had a feeling Tiana might as well. But he knew regaining her throne and then adapting to life in the merged realms and adjusting herself to her role in the Council of Realms was a lot to deal with, so he held off on voicing those feelings since the curse broke. If he knew anything about his lovely friend for sure - and he did - it was that she didn't like to be overwhelmed. And it was fine with him - more than fine. They worked together most every day and throughout that time, they'd only gotten to know each other better.

Which is why it wasn't too much of a surprise when he saw Tiana - while still on the break she herself proclaimed - reaching for a bag of flour and a carton of eggs she'd no doubt use for her next batch of beignets.

"Lady Tiana!" he said with mock scandalization. "Are you breaking your own decree for a break?"

Tiana looked at him, pointed, but clearly not too annoyed. If anything, she looked a bit embarrassed.

Clearly defensive in the wake of getting caught, she held up a finger and attempted to dismiss him. "There's nothing wrong with doing a little bit of prepping."

Naveen shot her his own pointed look, albeit more tired and amused than anything.

"Tiana," he said, getting up. "You are going to work yourself to an early grave." His tone wasn't so much overly concerned as it was tongue-and-cheek nagging. When he reached her, he got behind her and gently placed his hands on her shoulders. "We'll get this done on time," he assured her, allowing himself to be serious. "It's like you said, we're way ahead of schedule. A little break never hurt anyone."

Sighing, Tiana loosened up. Naveen could feel the tension leave her shoulders.

"I know you're right," Tiana said, turning to face him. "It's just...you know me. You know I'm-"

"Demanding?" he inquired cheekily. Tiana's eyes bulged. "Pedantic?" Then her jaw slackened. "An overachiever?" Then she looked like she was going to retort, but he beat her to it. "A stickler?" Obviously realizing his pattern, Tiana shot him an exasperated look. "Have a tendency to nitpick?" he offered, barely holding back his own laughter as he shrugged.

Tiana seemed to be reaching for a rebuttal, but seemed just as unable to know where to start.

And once again, Naveen beat her to one.

"But hey," he said, his hand reaching for her shoulder once more as she stood there still dumbstruck. "That's why I love you." And then he winked.

That seemed to snap Tiana out of her trance and with a wicked grin, she paid Naveen's words in kind with a playful, yet still hard, slap to his chest.

"Ow!" Naveen howled in semi-fake pain. "Well, we'll at least be done especially fast if you beat those eggs like you just beat my chest."

"You got that right," she teased. "And by the way, I was gonna say 'a perfectionist.' Now come on, let's get back to cooking." Despite the fact that they barely spent any of their break actually relaxing, Naveen smiled as he followed her lead without question.

Yes, Tiana was indeed a perfectionist.

And Naveen knew he wouldn't have it any other way.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()

"So where is this party supposed to happen again?" Naveen said as he loaded some more powdered sugar into his shaker.

Tiana couldn't help her smile as she gazed at the disaster before her. Not a pinch of sugar had made its way into the shaker yet, and you wouldn't know that Naveen was even aiming for it by looking at his clothes. His shirt was positively caked in the stuff - no pun intended...okay, maybe a little intended.

Naveen, either oblivious to his appearance or in spite of it - both were equally likely knowing him - gave her a seductive glance. "You like what you see?"

"Well," Tiana pondered, still grinning. "You are pretty sweet looking, but that sugar's not cheap, so don't candy coat yourself just yet. Do you need some help over there?"

While Naveen looked like he was about to dismiss her held, suddenly, the bag in his hand missed the shaker once more and what Tiana approximated was at least another two cups fell all over him. When he stepped back from his workstation, his clothes looked as white as a Stormtrooper's uniform.

"Yes, please," Naveen answered, deadpan in his delivery. She could tell that while he asked guiltily, it wasn't shamefully, and Tiana appreciated that about him. He knew she was the boss and while he wanted to get better, he also knew better than to deny himself her help when he was outmatched in favor of something as relatively useless as pride.

And that was something that she really liked about Naveen. Naveen was cocky, but never too prideful. He'd talk a big game but just as easily know when to fold for the sake of others. To do that required a unique kind of heart, one Tiana was happy to have in her life. It made the days less boring, but let her feel safe too - again, a combination that was hard to pull off, but Naveen balanced flawlessly.

"Okay, let me show you how to do this so that my floors and your wardrobe can be spared any further drama." She took the shaker off of the counter. "This shaker is only for the powdered sugar - I even labeled it - so you can just scoop it directly from the bag." To prove it, she did just that before emptying it once more. "Wanna give it a try now?" It was a simple process, and one he probably should've been able to figure out himself, but given that they'd been working for about eleven hours, she could hardly blame the exhaustion from getting to him a bit.

Naveen smiled. "After such a good lesson, how could I not?" And then he did it without a single issue. Honestly, she had no idea how Naveen's cursed counterpart could have flunked out of culinary school. Naveen took to lessons, even her more intricate ones, like a duck to water and internalized everything he was taught.

Or maybe, it was just a matter of how he was taught. Tiana's cursed memories of culinary school did paint their professors as...lacking. Despite their prestige, their teaching styles were more in making students read as opposed to doing any direct kitchen work more of the time, and Naveen was someone who learned best by example. Even Tiana only remembered Sabine getting by because she took great care to do supplementary research, practice recipes and concepts regularly, and attend cooking seminars.

But over the past six months, every time Tiana walked through some new recipe or mistake he made step-by-step with Naveen, he grasped it immediately and never needed to be told it again. And that allowed him to make better cooking decisions and even help Tiana out with some ideas of her own every now and then.

Who could've guessed that he'd end up being so talented in a kitchen?

Naveen really did have an interesting brain - one Tiana liked being around and learning about more and more with each passing day.

"Tiana, you didn't answer my question from earlier - where is Killian holding Emma's surprise party?"

Now Tiana remembered.

"Oh yeah. He's holding it on his ship - the Jolly Roger."

"That sounds like quite the party! A big party boat, some Cajun cooking - sounds like Mardis Gras!"

"It really does. But don't let Killian hear you call his ship a boat - his counterpart doesn't like that and I'm willing to bet that he likes it even less."

Naveen raised his hands in mock surrender. "Fair enough. Getting arrested by one of them was more than enough of their bad sides for me. Still, it makes you think."

Tiana raised an eyebrow, confused. "Really? I thought you guys were friends now."

"Not about Killian - about Mardis Gras. Don't you remember how we - Drew and Sabine - used to talk about where they wanted to travel? Didn't we say New Orleans was on that list and that we'd go around Mardis Gras?"

The feeling of recollection hit Tiana fast. "Yeah!" she said. "We said we'd get all dressed up for the parade, buy some masks from one of the local markets, and go on a food tour!" Tiana instinctually moaned at the idea of having some of the most authentic Cajun food in the world.

She might never want to leave.

"You know," Drew said. "We can go wherever we want now. Once things calm down a bit more - maybe we could take a vacation there."

Tiana grinned. It definitely would be an amazing experience, and one of the good things about the merging of the realms was that there were plenty of rulers to have her back if she wanted to take Naveen up on his offer - including her mom and his parents.

Maybe...it would certainly take a while before it could happen, but maybe in a year or two...they could actually go…

"I'd like that," she said, content in the bit of finality that she gave her words. From less than five feet away, Naveen smiled at her. She could sense some surprise in his eyes. "What?" she asked, a mix of confusion and amusement that bordered far more on the latter clear in her voice.

Naveen put his hand on her shoulder. "I'm just surprised you agreed so easily."

"You make me sound like a total buzzkill!"

"To be fair, before we met, you kind of came off as one." Once again, Tiana retaliated with a smack to his stomach. But to his credit, he did have a point. Since that first chance encounter with Naveen, Tiana knew she'd mellowed out a lot. She'd grown more trusting and more willing to give herself a break from time to time. And while part of her wanted to claim that it wasn't so true, as she thought on her life, she knew it was a change for the better. Relaxing a bit more had made her a better ruler and helped her to be both more realistic and more cautiously ambitious with her goals, especially since she put more faith in others now to help her achieve her goals.

"Careful, Lady Tiana!" Naveen said, his goofy smile so much wider now. "I can hardly go on that food tour with you if I'm internally bleeding from my stomach."

Absentmindedly, Tiana shook her head before gesturing the two of them to get back to work. "No, I guess I'll keep you in in shape for a while."

And Tiana knew she wouldn't have it any other way.

()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Naveen, whenever possible, cooked to music.

Music had its advantages. It attracted business, it made the work day feel shorter, and it allowed him to dance.

So when an upbeat party song came on, especially after the string of more lowkey numbers that made up most of their thirteen hours of work, Naveen wasted not time getting into his groove.

As he started to dance, Naveen rhythmically stepped back from his own workstation and towards Tiana's, albeit with work being the very last thing on his mind.

"Dance with me, Tiana!"

He could already see Tiana's hips swaying as he moved to hold her hand.

Tiana laughed and gravitated towards Naveen as he gently pulled her towards him.

"Well, I do love this song." She winked. "And I guess my partner can probably keep up with me."

"Oh I'll do better than that!"

With that, Naveen spun her. He watched Tiana's feet navigate their way through the spin. She was mostly on her toes and at one point, she even popped her foot. It reminded him a bit of a ballet dancer and made her moves all the more interesting to view.

"You are quite the dancer, Lady Tiana."

Tiana giggled at the mention of Naveen's nickname. It was a change that had happened quite gradually, but one Naven was happy to see. While Tiana initially snarked at her title being used as her nickname, she seemed fine accepting it as a running joke between them. But now, he could tell that when he said it, she liked it quite a lot.

Yes, Naveen took pleasure in his innate ability to endear himself - and his nicknames - to anyone with enough time.

When the spin was complete, she came back to him, their chests nearly touching while they held each other in their arms. "And you're a pretty good partner, Lord Naveen."

"Looks like someone's got jokes. Nice nickname, my little rip off artist," he commented, smirking.

"You know what they say: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Tiana winked as the song came to an end.

Naveen snorted. "Well, consider me flattered."

Suddenly, a nice easy listening number started up. A piano track began to play out, accompanying a smooth ballad sung by a talented woman.

Naveen drifted a bit closer to Tiana and smiled. "What do you say? One more dance?"

Tiana smiled right back. "You got it."

And so, arms cradling each other, the two of them started to gently sway to the music. Naveen stared at Tiana. All around her was evidence of their crazy amounts of work. Bits of batter clung to her apron and sleeves and bits of powdered sugar from their earlier debacle were splattered across her hair.

In Naveen's opinion, she had never looked more beautiful.

More than anything, he wanted her to know that.

Taking a deep breath, Naveen dared to lower his face so that it was a bit closer to Tiana's. If Tiana had any objections, she didn't give them voice.

In fact, she brought her face a bit closer to his.

Naveen questioned what he should do. This was one hell of a moment to make a move, but he felt he was ready, and maybe, she was too.

Well, there was only one way to find out.

With a gust of caution thrown into the wind, Naveen moved that last bit closer and kissed Tiana.

There was an immediate surge of relief as Naveen felt the impression of Tiana's lips pressing against his.

She was really kissing him back, and he could feel her lips tugging in the direction of a smile.

With breath as baited as the circumstances would allow, he dared to sift his hand through her hair and bring her closer to him. For his efforts, he was quickly rewarded with a similar action done to him.

They didn't kiss for too long before they pulled back for air, but they were both smiling when they emerged from the embrace.

Naveen laughed. "Well, it's nice to have that settled."

"I was wondering when you were gonna do that."

"I've got to keep my favorite Lady guessing, don't I?"

Laughing her own intoxicating laugh, Tiana brought Naveen in for another kiss, and that and the series of kissed that followed lasted through this song and the next and the next.

And Naveen felt comfortable saying that neither of them particularly minded.

After all, they were ahead of schedule, right?

()()()()()()()()()()()()()

Tiana chuckled as Killian looked at the fully stocked trunk of The Rolling Bayou. It always amused her just how much less familiar this Killian was with the culinary scene compared to the Killian she bonded with back in the Heights. He was so fascinated by the working of her food truck and took generously large breaths as he inhaled the smells of her food.

"So what do you think?" Naveen said, emerging from the driver's seat of the truck. "Do you think Emma will like it?"

Killian beamed as his vision went up and down the truck's stuffed trunk for what was likely the fourth time since they met up. "She's going to love it! I can't thank you enough, though I hope your payment and this extra tip is at least a start."

Tiana eyed the new bag of dubloons, stifling her salivation at its weight. What did she and Naveen say about those Hooks again? "Our payment is perfect. You're more than welcome, Killian," Tiana said as the two of them eagerly shook hands.

"I hope this didn't do too much to hinder your sleep schedules."

"Oh, it did," Naveen interjected. "Sixteen hours of work will do that to you." As if on cue, both Tiana and Naveen yawned. "But," he continued, looping an arm around Tiana, "it was well worth the trouble."

"I see more than just my own romance is in the air," Killian commented, smiling at the two of them while Tiana took Naveen's looped around hand into her own. "Glad to see you two finally got together, though I do wish it was under less sleep deprived circumstances."

"Don't worry about it Killian," Tiana waved off, looking up and smiling at Naveen. His expression informed what Tiana already had a strong feeling was true. "I promise you that we wouldn't have it any other way."


End file.
